The 2020 Presidential Candidates' Stances on Big Tech

By Georgia Edwards ‘21

With the Presidential election almost here it is imperative to know how the candidates stand on important issues. One of the most prominent issues that has been in the debate sphere is over big tech regulation.

While both parties agree that we need to re evaluate big tech’s power, their reasons behind that are quite different in comparison. Trump believes that social media tech companies like Facebook and Twitter are over censored. Specifically when it comes to censoring conservative media. Trump’s own social media accounts fall “victim” to this over censorship. Twitter on multiple occasions has attached warnings to several of Trump’s tweets for both giving misinformation and for glorifying violence. There is no doubt that Trump fights relentlessly for free speech, especially when it comes to social media, but a valid question to ask is will he only fight when it affects him? Most recently under the Trump administration there has been speculation that the Federal Trade Commision is looking into Facebook for violating antitrust laws. While looking into antitrust violations is something that can be predicted under the Trump administration, it may not hold true under Biden’s administration if elected. Biden has stated that he cares most about the impact big tech has on workers and increasing social media censorship. Biden’s views in this case are starkly different from Trump. While Trump wants less censorship on social media, Biden wants more as he believes they are too lenient on regulating fake news and misinformation. A clear example of their differing policy can be seen with the argument over Section 230. Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act is a US law that provides protections to internet companies by essentially saying that they are not producers of the content they post, therefore, making them not liable for the information shared through their websites. Trump wants to get rid of Section 230 and issued an executive order back in May explaining why. Essentially, Trump believes that Section 230 gives social media companies too much power when deciding what information to make public. He believes that they purposefully censor the media and infringe upon people’s freedom of speech. Biden also wants to revoke Section 230, but for different reasons. Biden believes that lawmakers should takeaway tech companies’ protection over being sued for what content they put out. So, it is interesting to see how the candidates positions play out in a real life example. Another issue Trump is extremely concerned about is privacy when it comes to Americans using Chinese owned tech. In the past few months, Trump has actively tried to ban the Chinese owned app TikTok. Trump wants to ban the app over national security concerns, believing that the Chinese government has access to sensitive US data information. TikTok responded to Trump’s potential ban by ensuring that all US data is stored in the US and that the team goes to great lengths to ensure user privacy. While Trump has not succeeded in banning TikTok in the US, Walmart and Oracle are expected to invest in the app in the near future. Even though a deal is in the works, Trump still wants the US to have majority ownership of the app. However, the current majority owners, a technology company called ByteDance, have pushed back on giving up its majority stake in the app.

It is impossible to talk about the future of big tech without talking about the future of politics. I predict that if Biden gets elected, big tech companies will be looked at under a vastly different microscope than they have under Trump’s administration. There will be a shift in focus from deregulation of social media to increased regulation. Additionally, less emphasis on US data use abroad and more on how tech companies affect the everyday American worker.